The pioneering rocket firm just pulled off the unexpected, and carried out what appears to be a seamless first-ever launch of its massive new rocket, called Falcon Heavy. That makes SpaceX, the game-changing company helmed by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the owner of the world’s most powerful operational rocket. Falcon Heavy took flight Tuesday around 3:45 pm ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About two and a half minutes after launch, the two side boosters on the rocket detached and headed back to Earth.

The pioneering rocket firm just pulled off the unexpected, and carried out what appears to be a seamless first-ever launch of its massive new rocket, called Falcon Heavy. That makes SpaceX, the game-changing company helmed by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the owner of the world’s most powerful operational rocket. Falcon Heavy took flight Tuesday around 3:45 pm ET from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. About two and a half minutes after launch, the two side boosters on the rocket detached and headed back to Earth.

The SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch has resumed countdown after being placed in a hold amid several delays — and an ever-narrowing launch window that ends at 4 p.m. “Continue to monitor the upper level wind shear. New T-0 is 3:45 p.m. EST, 20:45 UTC.,” read a post from the SpaceX account on Twitter, where the company makes many of its official announcements. A conference call to discuss updates was taking place but silent; an official attributed the clock’s movement to a quick runoff before evaluating options for the mission. “Launch auto-sequence initiated (aka the holy mouse-click) for 3:45 liftoff #FalconHeavy,” read a tweet from the account of SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

As minutes ticked away during the hold and the prospect of the launch began running into the end of the launch window, reporters and bloggers at Kennedy Space Center’s media site worked on their stories. But some on site wondered aloud if the Falcon Heavy’s launch would slip into Wednesday. However, at about 1:55 p.m., the countdown clock started back up with the new 3:45 p.m. target. Because the rocket’s path was blocked by high-level wind shear, multiple delays between noon and 1:20 p.m. winnowed the launch window to less than 45 minutes before clocks controlled by the U.S. Air Force stopped counting down.

Officials at midday saw great weather conditions for liftoff — with another SpaceX tweet calling them 90 percent favorable, at that. But SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted about the winds on his Twitter account shortly after noon: “Upper atmosphere winds currently 20% above max allowable load. Holding for an hour to allow winds to diminish. #FalconHeavy” That was before changes were seen in countdown clocks run by USAF Eastern Range operations — three delays pushed the launch from its original time of 1:30 p.m. to as late as 3:19 p.m. — but then the counting went into a hold, stopping altogether for a while. If a scrub is required for any reason, SpaceX would try again Wednesday.

After years of setbacks, SpaceX today successfully launched its Falcon Heavy three-in-one rocket and delivered its cherry-red payload into orbit – Elon Musk’s very own Tesla Roadster. After a morning of delays due to high winds, the mighty rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39, in Florida, USA, at 1245pm PT (2045 UTC) with no problems. Its 27 engines, bunched into three rockets, throttled up, and lifted its experimental payload to the heavens.

Two minutes and thirty seconds into the flight, two of these booster rockets peeled off, leaving just a central stage hurtling into the obsidian void with a Tesla strapped to it. The pair of side rockets landed vertically in tandem at the space center on Earth eight minutes after launch. Shortly afterwards, the remaining central stage separated from its payload and began the long trip back to Earth. It was due to land on the autonomous barge, Of Course I Still Love You, floating in the Atlantic ocean, but so far SpaceX hasn’t confirmed if it landed in one piece. There are rumors the rocket, and the barge it was supposed to land on, were destroyed after the rocket motors failed. SpaceX staff spoke of losing “the central core.”

A cherry red Tesla car was launched into space on Tuesday by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, with David Bowie’s song Life on Mars playing on repeat. Thousands of people gathered in Florida to watch the launch – the culmination of a plan five years in the making. Mr Musk used a super rocket – the Falcon Heavy vehicle – to send the car into orbit around Mars, deploying technology with twice the launching power of any existing rocket, and double that of the Saturn V, which launched the Apollo lunar missions.

Mr Musk explained that the Roadster “will be in deep space for a billion years or so, if it doesn’t blow up on ascent”. His fears were not realised, however, and the world’s most powerful rocket successfully taking off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3.45pm local time (8.45pm GMT). About two and a half minutes after the launch, the two side boosters on the rocket detached and headed back to Earth to land on two SpaceX landing pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Among the online spectators was British Astronaut Tim Peake, who described the feat as “simply awesome”.

Catalan emergency officials say 761 people have been injured as police used force to try to block voting in Catalonia’s independence referendum. The Spanish government had pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court. Police officers prevented some people from voting, and seized ballot papers and boxes at polling stations. In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests. Speaking soon after the polls closed at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT), Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Catalans had been fooled into taking part in an illegal vote.

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Windows 10’s users have been reporting issues regarding USB devices either disconnecting and reconnecting at random or in some cases causing the device to stop working until the computer is restarted. Below is a solution to this issue which has been caused by Microsoft setting the devices to sleep by default.

“We repeatedly reported concerns to … Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, including fire safety concerns which were not investigated, during the regeneration works. Concerns over locations of boilers, concerns about escape, concerns about fire escape lighting, the list goes on. I spoke to Nick Paget-Brown of the council, I spoke to councillors and they refused to investigate, they wouldn’t believe that the residents were concerned.

Theresa May has warned that Britain is in the grip of a spate of copycat terror attacks in the wake of the London Bridge atrocity. The Prime Minister delivered a stark assessment of the threat facing the UK after seven people were murdered and dozens more injured by three terrorists on Saturday night. It was the third terrorist outrage to hit the country this year following the Westminster and Manchester attacks. Speaking outside Downing Street, Mrs May said that although there was no direct link between the three incidents, “terrorism breeds terrorism”.

Nineteen people have been killed and about 50 injured in a suspected terror attack at Manchester Arena. The blast happened at about 22:35 BST on Monday following a pop concert by the US singer Ariana Grande. The cause is unknown but PM Theresa May said her thoughts were with those affected by “what is being treated by the police as an appalling terrorist attack”. British Transport Police said the explosion was in the arena’s foyer. Greater Manchester Police has established an emergency telephone number in response to the attack. It is: 0161 856 9400. The prime minister has suspended her general election campaigning and will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee later, in response to the attack.

The US military is considering shooting down North Korean missile tests as a show of strength to Pyongyang, two sources briefed on the planning have told the Guardian. Amid heightened tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, the Pentagon is looking for ways short of war to pressure the country into denuclearization, particularly if Pyongyang goes forward with a sixth nuclear test. The defense secretary, James Mattis, has briefed Congress on the option, but the military has not yet decided to intercept a test missile. One US official said the prospective shoot-down strategy would be aimed at occurring after a nuclear test, with the objective being to signal Pyongyang that the US can impose military consequences for a step Donald Trump has described as “unacceptable”.